Ruhrgas Ag v. Marathon Oil Company et al. (526 U.S. 574)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 17, 1999 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 526 U.S. 574 · 119 S. Ct. 1563
- Decided
- May 17, 1999
- Term
- October Term 1998
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the authority of the federal courts to adjudicate controversies. Jurisdiction to resolve cases on the merits requires both authority over the category of claim in suit (subject-matter jurisdiction) and authority over the parties (personal jurisdiction), so that the court’s decision will bind them. In Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Environment, 523 U. S. 83 (1998), this Court adhered to the rule that a federal court may not hypothesize subject-matter jurisdiction for the purpose of deciding the merits. Steel Co. rejected a doctrine, once approved by several Courts of Appeals, that allowed federal tribunals to pretermit jurisdictional objections “where (1) the merits question is more readily resolved, and (2) the prevailing party on the merits would be the same as the prevailing party were jurisdiction denied.” Id., at 93. Recalling “a long and venerable line of our eases,” id., at 94, Steel Co. reiterated: “The requirement that jurisdiction be established as a threshold matter . . . is ‘inflexible and without exception,’ ” id., at 94-95 (quoting Mansfield, C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U. S. 379, 382 (1884)); for “[¿jurisdiction is power to declare the law,” and “‘[wjithout jurisdiction the court cannot proceed at all in any cause,’ ” 523 U. S., at 94 (quoting Ex parte McCardle, 7 Wall. 506, 514…
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